


100 Five Word Prompts

by Mini_Goat



Category: Stargate Atlantis, Stargate SG-1
Genre: Alcohol, Angst with a Happy Ending, Ascension, Awkward Flirting, Bribery, Canonical Character Death, Drinking & Talking, Fetish Clothing, Five word prompts, Gambling, Implied/Referenced Torture, Innuendo, Originally Posted on Tumblr, Self-Reflection, Sexual Humor, Shotgun Wedding, Team Bonding, Unrequited Love, Wakes & Funerals
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-08
Updated: 2021-02-03
Packaged: 2021-02-27 05:20:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 23
Words: 15,453
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22061704
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mini_Goat/pseuds/Mini_Goat
Summary: Random submissions for the Five Word Prompt Challenge by https://archiveofourown.org/users/amaradangeli/profileNo particular order and I like most everyone else, probably won't get through all 100 but honestly, you never know with me. I'm a lunatic.
Comments: 78
Kudos: 68





	1. “Actually… I just miss you.” – Episode 1

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Five Word Prompts](https://archiveofourown.org/works/15040646) by [amaradangeli](https://archiveofourown.org/users/amaradangeli/pseuds/amaradangeli). 

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> No matter the distance...

Jack put his boots on his desk. The communication burst from Atlantis had come through this morning. Most of it was requisitions, updates, mission reports. A handful of personal letters home from various Atlantis team members. The spooks could ruck through those for classified items. Ah! There it was. At the bottom of the list of files in the personal folder. Innoxiously marked with ‘Gen. J. J. O’Neill’. Cute. Seemingly innocent and yet not. Not from her at least. Jack grinned and downloaded the file to a thumb drive that he tucked in the breast pocket of his uniform jacket.

Later that evening he dropped his keys on the table by his front door. The apartment felt empty. It always did. She’d never really lived there anyway. She’d briefly lived in a similarly soulless apartment in Nevada for a year then moved back to Colorado Springs to the home he’d bought during his divorce. It sat empty. Like this place did all day. He could sell it but he had hopes that she’d come home. Someday.

He drew the thumb drive out of his pocket and slid it into the side of his government-issue laptop that had the correct encryption codes to read the file he’d received.

Her face appeared on the screen. He couldn’t stop himself from grinning again at the sight of her eyes, the wistful smile on her face, the cute way she bit her lip thoughtfully.

“So apparently John really didn’t want this job. After my last go around with Woolsey I can see why. Ronon is still convinced I’m pretty useless. He’ll get over it. You did.

Rodney apparently thought we had some sort of unresolved sexual thing going on. I’ve never had to work so hard not to laugh since Selmac started feeding dad terrible jokes. Honestly Jack, you should have seen his face. He was so… earnest about it. Like he’d spent days thinking about how he was going to approach me about _my_ feelings for him.

If he had any idea how in love with you I was the first time he met me he could have saved himself so much anguish.” She giggled helplessly then bit her lip and looked at the camera shyly as though she were telling him one of her darkest secrets.

“I will say this, Atlantis is beautiful. Especially at night. But when I look out on the water when the sun us setting, all I see is you.” She sighed wistfully.

“Actually, I just miss you. Both of you. So much.” She admitted with a sad sigh and the recording ended.

Jack leaned forward and put his elbows on the desk as he ran his fingers through his hair. “I miss you too Carter.” He whispered hoarsely around the lump in his throat.

“Mr. O’Neill?” a soft feminine voice said from the doorway.

Jack looked up at the young woman standing there. “I thought I heard you come in. She’s asleep. I’ll see you tomorrow.” His afternoon nanny told him. She had been hired to watch Grace from the time the daycare closed until whatever time Jack got back from the unassuming building where HWS was located.

“Thank you Marie.” He told her. “Was she good today?”

“She’s always good Mr. O’Neill. She misses her mother.”

Jack nodded. “Yah. We all do.”


	2. “Alright, I'll leave you alone.” – Episode 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's a great honor Carter. Really!

“Sir.”

“Carter.”

“You don’t need to stay sir.”

“Teal’c told me someone needed to be here while he couldn’t.” Jack explained mildly.

“I’d prefer you didn’t.” She said wistfully.

“Oh, it’s not so bad.” He said soothingly.

“Not so bad? Not so _bad_?! I am covered in… What is this stuff anyway sir?”

“Looks kind of like that glitter slime Cassie likes to make.”

“It feels like snot and it’s on every single inch of my body _Sir_.”

“Danny says it’s some local custom. It’s supposed to be a great honor.” He grinned. She really did look cute covered in sparkly lavender glistening slime.

“Sir.” He voice hit a watery whine. “It’s soaking into my underwear.”

Jack slowly developed a traumatized look on his face as he tried very hard not to think about glitter… there…

“Alright, I’ll leave you alone.” He turned and walked out of the gossamer tent as he shoved his hands deep in his pockets.


	3. “And slowly… I was forgotten.” – Episode 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> RepliWeir reflects on love and loss in her dying act

I drift. Alone. Cold. Unbelievably cold. I relive those last moments, the moments with them, with _him_. I hadn’t planned to feel this way. When I left Earth, I ended things with Simon because I knew I was never coming back again and it just wasn’t fair to him at all. It wasn’t like Samantha and Jack, our love wouldn’t have held us together over the years. Eventually he would have resented my leaving, resented me making excuse after excuse over the years to not come home.

We never had the transcendent feelings that could survive being kept apart by our well meaning but mislead government when it came to emotional attachments. To survive on stolen scraps and hidden promises until the war with the Goa’uld ended. I pity them. I envy them. Oh how I envy them.

I don’t even know if this is really me. I feel it is. I have every memory of the flesh and blood me, every emotion. Every desire. Every regret. It is not Simon I regret. It’s not. Simon was sweet, intelligent, but not frighteningly so. Simon has always looked put together and urbane. Like a model out of GQ or an L.L. Bean catalogue. He didn’t have messy dark hair or scattered thoughts or random thoughts at inopportune times.

Simon would never have driven RC cars through the halls of Atlantis, terrorizing the technical staff. Laughing when he was scolded by technician and superior officer alike.

Simon would never get into a food fight with a coworker or reassure her that she was doing the right thing being exactly where she was questioning her own judgment.

It wasn’t Simon she missed. It was perennially amused hazel ringed with blue eyes even when he was annoyed or exasperated. It was full lips inclined to a jaunty snark and a rangy body she’d fantasized about more than she cared to admit.

She missed her team but most of all she missed him.

Her remaining act of love for them was to save them from herself. In her hubris, she had chosen a course that lead to where she currently was. Cold. Dead she supposed. Floating in space with the rest of the remaining Asurans who’s motives she could no longer guarantee. If she ever could. A poor choice in a list of poor choices.

But, they were safe. Her family by love if not by blood. The blood of the convent thicker than the water of the womb. She’d sworn her allegiance and so, with her dying not truly a breath, she’d sacrificed her remaining regret on the sword of temperance.

They would move on of course. He would find another woman to love without her in his life. He’d miss her, she though, but not like Jack would have missed Samantha in the same situation. Sam wore his ring on her tags, kept it in her desk drawer while on missions. Not forbidden, simply frowned on given how many times he’d personally rewarded her with much deserved promotions. She had been Woolsey’s first choice to command the mission. Jack had firmly told the other man no and that had been the end of that. Perhaps Jack had worried Samantha would leave as she had and never return.

She’d told Jack he didn’t need to worry, Sam would always come home to him. She was as invested in Jack as Liz had been in her team. Men and women she loved as brothers sisters. One she’d loved as far, far more.

She knew though that time would ease their pain of the loss of her and they would all move on with their lives. Even him.

… and slowly… I was forgotten.

It was her final thought before the cold shut down the last of her processors. She would dream no more.


	4. “And then everything just disappears” – Episode 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jack is having a Ba’al

**“And then everything just disappears” – Episode 4**

It’s not like this is his first rodeo. Jack has been tortured before. Everything from water boarding to sodomization. The acid thing wasn’t actually that bad. Sure it was excruciating but it wasn’t terrifying. It wasn’t humiliating. Having to listen to the guy gloat the entire time was a bit on the annoying side but he didn’t expect any less of the other man’s towering ego to have succeeded on accidently capturing one of his primary targets.

If Jack ever got his hands on that slimy Tok’ra snake that dragged him here then took off like a coward when he realized how deep the shit was about to get he’d make sure there was one less space snake. He wanted to be angry at Sam for talking him into doing it but he understood her motivations. He’d have done exactly the same for her.

He’d probably never see her again and that thought was singularly depressing. Of all his regrets, that was the one that swam to the surface every time he was thrown in his cell. Well, until Daniel showed up to keep him company. He wouldn’t tell him how she was either which told him a lot anyway. She’d lost a brother and now… whatever he was to her. Jack had his hopes about that situation but his luck appears to have run out for good unless Daniel could pull one hell of a giant rabbit out of his ass this time.

He wouldn’t put it past him.

Daniel kept trying to talk Jack into ascension but Daniel didn’t get it. Jack couldn’t ascend. Not because he didn’t understand how or didn’t want to. He couldn’t do it because he’d spend the rest of Sam’s life watching over her then the rest of eternity lamenting her loss when she inevitably died of old age.

Life without her was not worth living.

He’d end up punished like Orlin or worse. And for what? For being in love with someone? What a stupid reason to be punished. The Alterans were as bad as the military in that regard. He probably wouldn’t even get in trouble about Sam first, it would probably be killing Anubus or some other Goa’uld. Jack just wasn’t the kind of guy that could watch people he cared about being slaughtered from afar. Not if he had the power to stop it.

He was being dragged back to the torture table. Time for more fun and games with ol’ Bocce. Great.

Jack enjoyed the fact that acting dumb seemed to piss the snake off. He was never getting the codes and he didn’t have anything that would actually get Jack’s cooperation as Daniel was a glowey space squid now and Sam was out of his reach. Nope, all space Ba’al had was cutting remarks and torture.

Hours of excruciating torture. And then a sarcophagus that Daniel warned him would make him addicted eventually. But Jack had kicked addiction before.

The acid dripped on him reached his heart once again. And then everything just disappears.

Until next time.

And the time after that.


	5. “And where do I go?” – Episode 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger warning, this short deals with the death of Janet and her funeral

**“And where do I go?” – Episode 5**

Sam, why are you sad Sam? Talk to me. Why won’t any of you talk to me? Colonel. Colonel! What happened to you out there? Someone give him a shot of pain killer and get him into surgery before he bleeds out. Sam would kill me if we lost Jack. General Hammond? What happened to them? Why do you look so grim? Why does everyone look so upset? Why is no one listening to me?! Janet’s hands flew to her mouth as a body bag is brought through the gate. Oh god, who did we lose?! Please not Daniel. Teal’c! Grab Sam she’s going to pass out. Oh god. What happened? Airman, help me get these people off the ramp. My hand… why did my hand pass though you… what... oh… oh no… Cassie… I need to tell Jack to take care of Cassie.

* * *

It was a nice service. I liked the story about how we met Sam. Everyone but Jack and Daniel laughed, they cringed, as they should. How brave my girl was accepting my flag.

My sweet little Cassie. So grown now. Being so brave for everyone else when I know how your heart is breaking. Ah, there’s our Jack, ever perceptive, checking on you because he sees through your act. If only he were as perceptive of other things. No, wait, good. Sam too and Daniel and Teal’c. My family. Jack will have to take care of all of you now. He always has though. Even when you didn’t realize that’s what he was doing.

Others are here too as one might expect for such an event. General Hammond. You have been a good commander my dear friend. Always there for me; always supporting me when others would have run roughshod over me. My loyal and ever efficient staff. So many men and women who I trusted with my life and the lives of my friends. Walter and Sly, two sides of the same coin. Loyal, trustworthy, and the only reason many of them were still alive.

My poor Daniel. So lost within yourself. You were so different after you returned from being ascended. The blooming love I’d felt for you tamped down when you didn’t recognize who I was to you. Now we’ll never have the chance to rebuild that fragile love. I hope some day someone holds your heart gently and loves you the way you deserve my dearest. I will always love you.

My dearest Sam; truest of friends. How am I now to convince you that the man you belong with is the one with his arm over your shoulder right now? Protecting you from your own emotions. Did you invite the cop to be here for you? Did he make excuses as men like him will do? I imagine he did. Telling you he couldn’t just drop an investigation for the death of a woman he didn’t know, as though losing your best friend is such a little thing. No, better that he has stayed away. The comfort you need isn’t in his arms.

And Jack. Colonel O’Neill. Their glue, their support. You who have lost the most of all of us and bravely loves all of us with all your heart because you don’t know how to do anything else do you? You love them so much you will sacrifice yourself for them if need be and they you. Let Sam love you. Tell her how you feel before you lose her to a man who only sees her pretty face and not her beautiful soul.

But now I watch you all, unable to touch you. Unable to sooth your hurts or tell you that you are loved. You will have to do that for each other now. Jack you will have to tell Sam you love her yourself. I won’t be there to tell her so for you. Cassie, you will have to admit your heart hurts without me there to guess. Jack and Sam don’t read you like an open book the way I do. Daniel, you will need to seek out emotional support. I won’t be there to guess that you need to be held.

I wish I could ascend like Daniel so I could be with him again one day, to be there for all of you, but that was not in the cards. My death was too sudden, too violent for such things. Instead, I silently watch you all hold each other. Missing me. Loving me. And where do I go? Where do I go?


	6. “anyone could tell from here.” – Episode 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sam thinks her private life is just that. Of course... it isn't...

Jennifer plopped on Sam’s couch like she lived there.

“Did you volunteer to beard the beast or did you draw the short straw?” Sam asked her, looking up from her paperwork. It was still painful to make the long walk to her office with a broken leg so she was camped out in her quarters doing paperwork.

Jen shrugged. “Technically I’m your doctor and performing a checkup.”

“Unofficially?”

“I hate my job Sam. Carson was great at this and I’m just… floundering.” She admitted sadly.

Sam nodded slowly. With a few more years of experience she’d be a natural but Jen had been thrust into the job due to unfortunate circumstances. “I won’t say it will get easier Jen, it doesn’t but as you do it, it will come more naturally to you.”

Jennifer Keller sighed and put her chin in her hand. “You know you never finished our conversation earlier.” She said pointedly.

“Which conversation was that?” Sam asked idly, her nose in a report.

“About your husband…”

Sam choked. “What… ah… what makes you think I’m married?” Sam tried to sound casual and failed.

Jen grinned. “John is a blabber mouth.” She admitted and chuckled.

“I am going to kill him.” Sam said darkly.

“Oh relax. I tricked him into telling me when he was high on pain meds after his last failed attempt at killing himself creatively.” She said with a dismissive wave of her hand.

“I am still going to kill him. He better not say anything to anyone else.”

“What? Why not Sam? It’s not illegal to be married.”

“It’s a little sketchy when your husband is a joint chief and your position was recommended by the joint chiefs after Congress forced their hand.”

“Oh... my god… You married Jack!” She squealed.

“Keep it down! Someone will hear you!” Sam snapped.

Jen childishly stuck her tongue out at Sam. “I wish Liz was still alive. She had a bet about when he’d finally ask.”

Sam sighed.

Jen giggled. “Oh come on Sam. Anyone could tell from here how he feels about you. I’m just glad it wasn’t that cop. Liz hated him.”

“She never met him.” Sam denied.

“She didn’t have to. Daniel and Jack told her enough that she wanted to yeet him into a sun.”

“Yeet?”

“Toss, throw, blast, you get what I mean. She said he was pscho and Liz was a super good judge of character.”

“I know. Jack was really upset when we got the news. I’m sorry. I know how much everyone here loves her.”

Jen shrugged though. “We lose people Sam. It happens… so was it a nice wedding?”

Sam chucked. “Yes it was a nice wedding and don’t you dare go around blabbing about it. We had to keep things very small and private for obvious reasons. When he retires in a couple years it won’t be such a problem.”

“And then you can work on having another baby.” She said grinning.

Sam’s eyes narrowed. “How much did that idiot say while on drugs?”


	7. “Are you finishing that or…?” – Episode 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sam knows EXACTLY what she's doing

Another world, one of dozens they had visited so far. This one about as quiet as you could get. No flying space danger noodles, no homicidal chipmunks. Nothing but stars, ruins, trees, and his team for a couple weeks while Daniel did his translations. If this place had a pond, Jack would happily retire here. Especially if he could talk a particular Major to join him in that retirement. Jack grinned. A pipe dream for certain but not one he didn’t engage in off and on over the years. They had an understanding of sorts. They also didn’t ask anything of each other. Usually.

SG-1 sat companionably around the fire Teal’c had laboriously assembled. Jack and Teal’c had found logs they brought over to give them something to sit on besides cold damp dirt. The tents were side by side behind them. Teal’c and Daniel in one, Jack and Sam in the other. Jack chose to willfully lie to himself about that arrangement but he wasn’t fooling anyone, not even himself.

Sam sat next to him cleaning her side arm and reassembling it. The firelight catching in her hair and turning it into a halo of spun gold.

After a while Sam finally looked up as if only now noticing his eyes on her. In reality she’d noticed from the start but she enjoyed his attention and preferred he continued. If you called attention to it too soon, he’d make excuses, bluster and back off. It was a bit of a numbers game, how long to let him stare before things got too far but not so short of a time that he skittered off like Daniel on a first date. Sam smiled at Jack in amusement.

“Do you need me to clean your sidearm too sir?”

Jack stared at her open mouthed for a moment. She did not just offer to? She was grinning at him just a little. Yup. She totally meant that the exact dirty way he’d taken it. Jack swallowed. “Not at the moment Carter. Possibly later.” He coughed. Oh yah, real smooth O’Neill. You’ve got game that’s for sure.

Sam smirked at his discomfort. Dammit she had played him.

Jack looked over at Teal’c half finished cupcake. “Are you finishing that or...?”

The large Jaffa snatched his cupcake away and crammed it into his mouth in a single bite then scowled. Clearly indicating to Jack to get his own damned cupcakes.

Randomly Daniel started talking across the fire. “You guys ever get weirdly attached to an overly specific word?”

“Oh!” Sam said. “Like plethora!”

“Yes exactly!”

“Plethora Carter?”

“Yes. It means an unusually large quantity.”

“I know what it means.” His voice was a little waspish in its defensiveness.

“Why plethora Sam?” Daniel asked her.

“You know, I don’t really know. I do remember how I learned it though. I was top of my class in sixth grade. Jacqueline Gauze and were so far ahead of everyone that Mrs. Plunges didn’t know what to do with us at all so she started giving us vocabulary assignments. That one just stuck with me.” She grinned happily at the memory. “What about you Teal’c? got a favorite word?”

“Mine is onomatopoeia Major Carter.”

“Interesting choice Teal’c. Any particular reason?” she asked him clearly genuinely interested.

“I like that it sounds, silly.” Teal’c admitted absolutely dead pan. Everyone looked at him, unsure if he was making a joke until the corners of his mouth quirked up slightly. Jack laughed first.

“Sounds dirty too if you say it fast enough.” Jack told him.

“I do not understand O’Neill.” Teal’c proceeded to say onomatopoeia quickly until it garbled into something that sounded roughly like ‘I don’ wana pee yah’. A low chuckle rumbled from his chest. “I see.” He admitted which made everyone laugh.

“How about you Daniel?” Jack asked him still chuckling.

“Well, honestly, mine isn’t technically English.”

“As long as it’s not Goa’uld.” Jack growled.

“No, Hindu actually. It’s ananda.”

Jack and Sam looked at him curiously.

“It means... well it means extreme happiness, the highest state of love.” He told them.

“Leave it to Space Monkey to get all schmaltzy on us.” Jack said with a chuckle.

“So what’s yours Jack?” Daniel asked him.

“Mine?”

“I don’t see anyone else named Jack sitting around the fire do you.” Daniel said snarkily. Sam chuckled.

“No giggling Carter.” He said absently. He was ever so tempted to say alacrity but suspected that his second might actually punch him for it and he was in range of her swift and oft painful fist.

“Sorry sir.” Her voice clear indicated she wasn’t even a little sorry about laughing at him.

“Diaphanous.”

“What does this word diaphanous mean O’Neill?” Teal’c asked having not heard it before.

“Er, well, it means… delicate, translucent. Floaty.”

Daniel gave him a long silent look until Jack looked away uncomfortably.

“That’s very poetic of you sir.” Sam said smiling.

“What can I say, I’m a poetic kind of guy.”

From across the fire Daniel coughed as though he was trying not to laugh. “Yah,” he sighed dramatically, “Well, I think I’ll turn in for now. Wake me at my watch.”

“Goodnight Daniel.” Sam said with a smile.

“Sleep well Daniel Jackson.”

Jack continued to not look at Daniel. “Night.”

Sam was now watching Jack until he became uncomfortable under her gaze as well.

“What is it Carter?”

“Oh nothing. My second favorite word is buccaneer.” She flashed him a grin and got up in a fluid motion. “Good night Sir.”

“Right. Sweet dreams Carter.” His mind flashed to a particular incident and knew for certain she’d deliberately baited him for a second time tonight. Do’h.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> See Episode 73 for what Sam and Jack are referencing.


	8. “are you stupid or stupid?” – Episode 8

“Well, for starters, she’s crazy.” Daniel said to Jack who had just asked him what he thought of Vala after getting to know her better.

Jack chuckled and saluted Daniel with his pint of Guinness. “Teal’c says she likes you.”

“Indeed I did O’Neill.” Teal’c said from the other side of Daniel. He was wearing a black suit and black shirt with a black bandana covering his forehead, his now long hair poking out from underneath.

“Is this some kind of intervention guys because really… it’s rarely a good idea to date coworkers.”

“Seems to have worked out for Carter and me.” Jack said reasonably.

“Oh, happy anniversary by the way. I’d have gotten you guys a gift but we both know it’s really for Sam so I didn’t bother.” Daniel said unironically.

Jack smiled a little into his beer.

“I wish many more happy years to you O’Neill.” Teal’c told him.

“Hell of a way to spend my anniversary. At a bar in DC because my wife is chasing space aliens.”

Daniel smirked.

“Back to you dating one though.” Jack quipped and grinned wider when Daniel winced.

“I do not understand your reluctance Daniel Jackson.”

“Well… There’s that thing about her being crazy.”

Jack shrugged though. “Carter seems fine with crazy and you two are a lot alike.”

“Jack, no offence but if I wanted to date you I’d switch sides.”

Teal’c actually laughed at Daniel’s comment. “Daniel Jackson I do not believe O’Neill’s affections for you lean that way.”

“You’re both dicks.” Daniel grumbled.

Jack chuckled. “Ask her out Danny. She likes you.”

“She also likes petty theft and bombs. What’s your point?”

“Well, she’s also smart, funny, hot…” Jack pointed out.

“Vala Mal Doran carries a great unspoken affection for you Daniel Jackson.” Teal’c told him and dug into the gigantic plate of nachos the waitress brought.

When Jack reached over to snag one Teal’c glared at him until he withdrew his hand. “If you wished for nachos O’Neill, you should have ordered some.”

Jack nodded and frowned. “Dually noted.”

“Look did Sam put you up to this?” Daniel asked.

Jack just shrugged and caught a waitresses’ attention to get his own plate of nachos.

“She did didn’t she. Jack I can’t believe you after all the crap you gave me to get off your ass about your relationship with Sam.”

“Daniel a balls hot woman wants to bed you after you have slept with every space princess from here to Alderann. Are you stupid or stupid?”


	9. “anything, just call me, okay?” – Episode 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The guys help Sam move to Nevada

Sam looked around her apartment. Lots of her stuff was in Jack’s garage. Including their bikes. It was only a year and a half assignment and then hopefully she’d be back in Colorado or possibly in DC with Jack. A security company was watching the house due to his reassignment and they had rented out her bungalow. They agreed it would be best to keep both houses for now to avoid tempting fate and it would generate a small amount of liquid cash for Sam if Cassie needed money.

The apartment was pretty sparse. She had her plants and photos and a couch and a TV. She didn’t have much else though she had a couple of tubs with yarn and needles in her tiny office in case she was bored and needed to relax. She’d almost punched Jack once for telling her to do some knitting because of her stress level but he hadn’t technically been wrong. Just rude.

“Daniel Jackson and I will return the truck Samantha.” Teal’c told her as he hugged her tightly.

“Thanks Teal’c.” She told the big man. He’d arguably done most of the heavy lifting for her.

“Good luck Sam. Tell Cass we said hi.” Daniel said as he hugged her.

“I will Daniel.” Cassie’s school was only a couple hours away. Sam would be able to spend her days off with her goddaughter making sure she was hanging in there. The last couple of years without Janet had been difficult for her and it had been a solid secondary reason for Sam’s move to Nevada.

“Daniel Jackson, it is time to go.” Teal’c admonished the blond man. He gave Jack a glance then Daniel a pointed look.

“Oh… oh right. Sorry. Yah, we should get the truck to the yard before they close for the night so you don’t have to pay for another twenty four hours.” Daniel said agreeably.

Sam gave him an amused little smirk and kissed his cheek. “Thank you guys. You were great.”

Teal’c hustled Daniel out the door, leaving Sam and Jack silently regarding each other.

“So…” Jack said.

Sam smiled shyly at him. “I wish you didn’t have to be back at the base tomorrow.” She admitted.

“Me too. It might have been nice to spend a couple days alone together.” They had shared a hotel room last night as Daniel had complained that he didn’t want to ride eighteen solid hours from Colorado Springs to Groom Lake. Jack was pretty sure it was a set up but he wasn’t going to complain.

“You ah… need anything else before I go?” He finally asked her.

Sam smiled brightly at him. “I already have what I need.”

Jack’s face lit up. “So you do.” He agreed and drew her in for a slow kiss. “I’m already addicted to being able to do that when I want to.” He admitted when they parted.

Sam grinned a little. “No more making out on team night and pretending it’s because we’re drunk?” She asked him almost disappointed.

“No we’ll still make out when we’re drunk.” He said chuckling. “Probably some other times too.” He told her with an amused wink.

Sam gave him a delighted smile. “I’ll see you in a couple weeks?”

“Of course.” His fingers trailed along her cheek. “Undomesticated equines Carter.” He said softly before kissing her again. The kiss was slow and tender and filled with promise.

When he drew away he kissed her forehead gently. “I should go.” He told her. Mostly because if he stays much longer he’s going to draw her to the bedroom and it would be a very long time before he got on the road.

“All right.” She said softly.

“You’ll call?”

“For?” She teased him.

“Anything, just call me, ok?”

“Anything at all.” She agreed with a sad smile.

His eyes went soft. “I love you Sam.”

She leaned up and gives him a quick kiss. “I love you too Jack.”

He grins a little and closes the door behind him.

She watches him leave the building from her balcony. She giggles a little because he’s whistling the theme song from Wormhole X-treme!


	10. “Bitch better have my money” – Episode 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Walter is the go to guy for making bets... but there's a limit to how much he tolerates a cheapskate

Walter was the defacto betting pool master. Oh sure sometimes Sergeant Amos handles it if Walter actually took a day off but when was the last time he did that? Colonel O’Neill was fond of rather silly bets like would Major Carter take the day off on her day off. Teal’c was not one for bets. Calling them sure. Walter had turned to the large Jaffa for odds on more than one occasion. Even General Hammond on more than on occasion has made a bet or two. Usually a rather optimistic one and won each time. Walter kind of liked that about his CO. Overall, the guys were pretty good about paying up when they lost.

Almost all of them.

There was this one guy who lost pretty often. He wasn’t really not sure if it’s he’s just really bad at guessing the odds or he really doesn’t care and is just doing it because everyone else is doing it but he’s a giant welsh. Walter had to force him to pay up before he could place a new bet more than once already. And that’s not to say that the occasional airman didn’t pay up but this guy had the money. He just didn’t like being wrong even though he was wrong pretty often.

“Sergeant.” Colonel O’Neill said to him in a friendly voice. Even when Jack was tired and running on too much coffee and ennui he was always friendly with himself and Sylvester Walter noted. The Colonel cared about his people more than he was supposed to. Especially his team but his whole entire staff wasn’t immune to the man checking up on them, asking how their families were. O’Neill knew the names of everyone’s kids and their dogs too. Remembered birthdays and what their wives did for a living and would ask after a kid who had been sick or a spouse that lost a job. He might struggle with how to pronounce neutrino but he knew everyone and what their goals were. Half the time he did it in such a way that the other person had no idea how genuinely intelligent the man was either.

“Colonel O’Neill, would it be possible to say something to someone for me?” Walter asked him.

“Sure Walter. Someone causing a problem?”

“Not directly sir, it’s just… he might actually listen to you.”

“Oh?”

“Well, he’s a nice guy and all but I can’t seem to get through to him that if he makes a bet and he loses he has to pay up.”

Jack pulled on his lip thoughtfully. “Why do you think he’ll listen to me Walter? I can make him pay you but if you want intimidation Teal’c is your guy.”

Walter frowned thoughtfully. “Respectfully sir I don’t think Teal’c scares him.”

“Oh?”

“He um… knows him too well to be afraid of him.”

Jack looked at Walter thoughtfully. “Are we talking about who I think we are talking about?”

“Er, yes sir and that’s why I asked you in particular to say something to him.”

“Gotcha.” Jack nodded firmly. “All right. I need to go check on the kids anyway. I’ll mention it.”

“Thank you sir.” Walter said in genuine appreciation.

‘Don’t mention it.” Jack said affably and dropped his personnel evaluations in Hammond’s in box before leaving the control room that doubled as Walter’s office.

An hour later Jack casually strolled into the cluttered lab of the person Water had asked him to talk to.

“Oh Danny Boy…” Jack sing songed cheerfully.

“Kind of busy Jack.” Daniel grumbled without lifting his nose from his book.

“Too busy to pay the piper?”

“What?” Daniel asked, clearly confused.

“Walter says you’ve been hosing the betting squares.”

“I’ve… what?”

“Welshing, walking out, dodging…” Jack supplied.

“Why is it you’re a walking thesaurus when you want to be but can’t pronounce simple words?”

“I don’t want to.” Jack said in false offence. “Pay Walter or stop betting on stuff.” Jack said.

“Daniel frowned. “It’s not like I don’t plan to.”

“Pay him today Danny. You’re making me look bad.” Jack said pointedly.

“Ok, yah fine, I’ll pay up today.”

“Good talk Danny.” Jack said and left whistling. He ran into Walter who had been eavesdropping by the door. “He’ll pay you today. Don’t take any of his bets unless he pays upfront.” Jack told the Sergeant who was a solid foot shorter than him.

“Thank you sir.” Walter said gratefully and walked away.

“No problemo.” Jack said affably as he walked away.

“Bitch better have my money.” Walter muttered under his breath.


	11. “Bro… that’s so… not cool…” – Episode 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The SGC likes to promote from the ranks but sometimes that’s not always possible. A new Major makes a profound tactical error his first... and last day on the job.

“Well sir?”

Jack turned to his second who was holding a clipboard with a checklist on it. “Well what?”

“Think Hammond will be happy with the Pentagon’s choices?”

“God I hope so. It takes forever just having Danny read them in. The less people we reject the better.” Jack grumbled which made Sam smile in amusement.

“Yes sir.” She agreed, her blue base uniform matched her teams. She had no idea Jack picked blue so often simply because he liked the color on her and frankly it got Danny his share of dates with the nurses too.

“All right people” Jack said raising his arm and his voice as he walked to the middle of the haphazard line to get the attention of the group in front of him. “Each of you have been given the opportunity to serve on an elite team of specialists.”

“Sir isn’t this a scientific facility?” One of the recruits piped up.

“It is Major, however we are also the base of operations for a specialized advance unit in the field.” Sam corrected him. She had separated slightly from where she’d been standing off to the side with Jack earlier.

Siler and Teal’c stood together near the training equipment, Daniel off to the other side where chairs were set up for their introduction… at least the ones that passed the basic assessment from Teal’c and his accident prone sidekick.

“Each of you,” Jack continued, “Will be assessed today for mission readyness. You will see our hand to hand experts first,” He indicated Teal’c and Siler who waved in a friendly manner. “Then your marksmanship will be assessed by Major Carter here and finally Dr. Jackson will read the finalists into the program. Should you fail any single portion of the assessment today you will be dismissed without orientation. Is that clear?”

The men and women in front of him all said ‘yes sir’ together.

“Good. Good luck all of you.” Jack said. “Teal’c?”

“We are ready O’Neill.” The large Jaffa told him.

Jack slapped his hands together and rubbed them. “Then get to work people. If your last name starts with A through M see Mr. Teal’c and Master Sergeant Siler. If your last name starts with N through Z go to Major Carter first. Dismissed.” Jack told them.

The line of twenty recruits broke apart with about half of them heading towards Teal’c and Sylvester to get the stuffing knocked out of them. The other half moved towards the small range Sam had set up on the other side of the room. Jack followed her.

Two hours later Sam and Teal’c had switched candidates. Sam noted with amusement that those coming from Teal’s class looked worse for the wear but neither Teal’c nor Siler who was as tall and lanky as Jack had so much as broken a sweat.

At the end of four hours about half of the candidates had been disqualified. The remaining ones were shuffling tiredly to where Daniel was sitting looking bored.

One of the guys who failed Teal’c and Siler’s assessment walked back over to Sam who was standing about four feet from Jack.

“Thank you Major for considering me.” He said and held out a hand.

Sam nodded and shook it. “Don’t feel like you aren’t a good solder Major Batifoler.” She said with a smile. “Teal’c is very exacting in his requirements.”

“Well there’s certainly an upside to not being chosen.”

“Oh?”

“Perhaps you would like to have lunch with me?” He said with a charming smile.

“Oh, um… I don’t…” Sam stammered as she pulled her hand away. Neither she nor Batifoler caught the death glare Jack gave the younger man.

“Ah, well, thanks anyway.” He said casually and turned and walked away. He joined another candidate who had washed out.

“What did she say?”

“She’s seeing someone.” He told his friend and shrugged. Why else would she turn down a date?

Siler and Teal’c had overheard the exchange and watched Jack stomp off to Daniel.

“Did he seriously just ask Sam out right in front of Jack?” Siler asked quietly, his eyes wide. He’d seen Jack’s glare. That kid would have been a grease spot if Jack had anything to say about it.

“Indeed.”

“Bro… that’s so... not cool…” Siler breathed.

“Indeed not.”

“I mean even if they weren’t… you don’t ask someone out in front of their CO.” Siler swallowed.

“Major Batifoler possibly has a wish for death.”

“Yah think?!”

On the other side of the room Daniel was explaining to the remaining candidates that they needed to sign a three twelve before he could read them in. Jack was sitting in a folding chair at the back, arms crossed staring down the Batifoler kid as he left the room.

Daniel gave Jack a questioning look as he pushed his glasses back up his nose but all Jack did was make a get on with it hand motion.


	12. “But did you do it?” – Episode 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jack hedges around answering Daniel about his romantic weekend with Sam and a very important question he needs to ask her

“So?” Daniel asked Jack from his bar stool. Jack had just joined him in the dive the frequented when they wanted to drink in peace away from anyone that might know either of them.

Jack gave Daniel a deer in the headlights look. “So.”

“You chickened out didn’t you?”

“No.”

“Yes.”

“No.”

“So what happened?”

“Nothing.” Jack grumbled.

“What do you mean nothing?”

“Nothing happened.”

“You chickened out.”

“Did not.”

“Did so.”

“Not.”

“Did.”

“Fine. I chickened out. Are you happy now?!” Jack snapped at his best friend.

“I just don’t get it Jack. You’ve been in love with each other for years now. You finally have a window of opportunity to get married before they assign you to the same chain of command again and you chickened out.”

“It’s complicated.”

“Sam I love you. Please make me the happiest man in the world by marrying me.” Daniel gave Jack a pointed look. “See. Not complicated.”

“It’s not that easy Danny. There’s… stuff.”

“What stuff?”

“Just… stuff.”

“Jack O’Neill. Scourge of the Goa’uld… a chicken.”

“I didn’t chicken out.”

“Then what’s the problem?”

“Stuff.”

“Right. Stuff.” Daniel huffed. “Ask her tomorrow.”

Jack scowled at Daniel. “We work tomorrow.”

“So?”

“Right.” Jack huffed.

Sam smiled at Jack when he walked into her lab. “Oh hey sir!” She said cheerfully.

“Sir.” He grumbled under his breath.

“What was that sir?” Sam asked, her forehead wrinkling slightly in confusion at his mood. Two days ago he’d taken her out for a delightful dinner followed by some even more delightful time spent in his bedroom making each other come unglued. He’d been nervous through most of dinner so she’d come on to him to help him relax which he had. If she didn’t know better she’d have thought she was going to be proposed to but that was silly wasn’t it. It was too soon after Pete after all and they didn’t need to rush things. She knew where she stood in his heart and he certainly knew where he stood in hers as she’d told him at length after her dad had passed while they waited for Mark’s flight in from California together at the airport.

“Nothing.”

“Is everything all right Sir?”

“Fine… fine… how’s the...” he waved his hand vaguely at her work bench. “Doohickey?”

“Coming along fine. I should have some specs for you in a couple days. Nothing I can reconstitute with NAS parts but I could probably cobble something together in our machining lab in 51.”

“Good. Good.” Jack said bobbing his head absently while he picked up a pen off her desk and took great interest in disassembling it.

Sam walked over and put her hands around his to extract her pen before he had it completely apart. “We’re ok right?” She asked him, her voice soft, a question in her eyes.

“Oh yah. We’re great.” Jack agreed and flashed her a grin.

“Ok. Good.”

“Um… Carter?”

“Yah?”

“The other night... I mean, about the other night… I wanted to ask you something and never got to it.”

“Oh?”

He gave her a cautious smile and looked down at their hands and removed one of his to place it gently on top of hers. “I ah… I had this plan all worked out… but then I was worried what if it was too much like last time and I never asked and you only said yes that time because you felt like you should so I tried to figure out if I should just ask you what you think about it or just go for it and I couldn’t figure out which one to do.”

Sam tried to hide a smile while she suppressed a chuckle. “Sir.”

“Yah Carter?”

“I’d have said yes.”

“You would?”

“Yah.”

“Sweet.”

Sam’s grin widened and Jack grinned back.

“SO ah… if I ask you later tonight when we aren’t, you know… at work…?”

“Absolutely.” She assured him.

“Good talk Carter.” He said, still grinning and walked out of her lab whistling.

“So?”

“So?”

“Why do I have déjà vu? So?”

Jack shrugged.

“Is there still… stuff?” Daniel asked, sliding his hands back and forth, elbows cocked to indicate quantity.

“Some of the stuff is handled.” Jack hedged.

“But did you do it?”

“Do what?”

“Did you ask her?”

“No.”

“Why the hell not Jack?!”

“Because Danny... we are at work.” Jack reminded Daniel.

“So?”

“So that’s not the kind of conversation you have at work.”

“We’re having that kind of conversation in the commissary... at work” Daniel reminded him.

“That’s different.”

“ _HOW?!_ ”

“It just is.” Jack said indignantly.

Daniel howled in frustration. “I give up!” He got up and left.

A few moments later Sam appeared looking mystified. “What’s up with Daniel?”

Jack grinned at her evilly.

“Oh.” She said in understanding. Then she snorted in mirth. “Sir, that’s just mean.”

Jack grinned wider. “I know.”


	13. “Call me now. It’s urgent.” – Episode 13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Because well… I like schmaltz

Sam drummed her fingers on the counter looking down at the object of her attention. “Well, that wasn’t supposed to happen.” She huffed. She had a job to get ready for though and responsibilities to attend to. She wasn’t really surprised though. Not really. Not after… well, everything.

She dressed for the day in her blues because the world didn’t just stop simply because her life changed entirely.

She dragged a band into her shoulder-length blond hair that tended to curl slightly if she didn’t make a concerted effort to straighten it. She didn’t even try. She had better things to do than fight with her hair every day or lighten the shade of golden blond to a platinum or fuss over it. Most days she just tied it back and was done with bothering with it. She no longer kept it military issue short but rank helped with that.

She adjusted her collar slightly and smoothed the blue dress blouse imperceptively over the stomach that wouldn’t fit it in a few months it seemed.

On her way out the door, she pressed 1 on her speed dial. It had been her first entry for a decade now. The man on the other end currently in DC being ‘The Man’.

His voice mail picked up. He most likely was in yet another meeting with the Joint Chiefs. Her mouth quirked. She hung up before his voice finished the curt greeting she’d heard on every device he’d owned for years now.

Sam switched to text. ‘Call me now. It’s urgent.’ She typed.

Her phone rang as she got into the aging green truck he loved so much she’d bought it off him when he was reassigned.

“Carter,” he barked by way of greeting. “I left a meeting with the Joint Chiefs for this.” She heard the grin in his voice. He wasn’t even a little sorry to do that.

“Are you sitting down?”

“Should I be?” He asked a little confused.

“Well,” she said as though considering. “That depends on how you feel about that little possibility we discussed a few weeks ago.”

“Jog my memory Carter.”

“The mathematical one.” She said, knowing he now knew exactly which conversation.

She heard a sound like a body thumping into a chair. “You’re serious?”

“Yes Jack.” She said, now grinning so hard her face was starting to hurt.

“All right… um… wow.” His voice radiated ‘stunned’.

Ten minutes later She was at the Cheyenne Mountain facility and another ten minutes later she walked into her office to be greeted by warm arms that enveloped her as his lips crashed down on hers. Technically she was between assignments but SGC was her defacto base of operations between.

Moments later when he let her up for air she looked up at him, a little stunned. “You do know there are cameras in here right?”

“I don’t care.” He told her and kissed the mother of his child again.


	14. “Eventually… you just move on.” – Episode 20

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Danny is a maudlin drunk

They sat together in a seedy bar drinking questionable fluid that was described as alcoholic but Daniel had his doubts. He was a lightweight and he was still very, very sober. Maudlin. But sober.

“Well, this is boring.”

“Tell me about it." He told her.

“What’s a nice boy like you doing in a dump like this?” She asked and cheekily nudged his shoulder.

Daniel held up his wrist to remind her exactly who’s fault it was that he was on an unnamed planet in a random star system alone with a lunatic.

“Riiighhhttt…” She grinned. “Cheer up darling. We’ve made progress today.”

“Is that what you call it.”

“Well it’s better than feeling sorry for myself.” She said matter-of-factly. “What’s eating you anyway?”

He shrugged and looked off into the middle distance. “Nothing you would understand.” He threw back the watered-down overpriced drink and ordered another on her tab.

“Try me.”

Daniel sighed heavily. She wasn’t going to let up and it would pass the time at least until their contact arrived. “I miss Sha’re.” He said thoughtfully.

“You’re wife.”

“Yah. She’s been gone a while.”

She nodded slowly. Love, she knew, didn’t just go away simply because someone died. “Tell me about her. What was she like?” She said gently.

He expected many things from her but gentleness was rarely one of them. He looked at her askance. She was dressed as she often did, a tightly fitted corset. Leather pants. Every inch a woman familiar with her own sexuality.

“Well if you don’t want to tell me that’s just fine but could you at least quit sighing despondently.” She told him flippantly.

Daniel shook his head in frustration. He should have known she was only making fun of him. Then she did something that surprised him. She gently rubbed his hand with the back of hers the way he’d observed Jack doing so to Sam over the years even before he’d started to suspect there was something going on with them and it made him look at her thoughtfully.

“Sha’re was beautiful. Her eyes just danced with humor. She laughed at me for not being able to do simple things she took for granted. Jack and I met her on our first trip to Abydos. Her father, ah, gave her to me, as a gift.”

“Well that’s one way to get rid of excess children you aren’t fond of.” She said drolly.

“Ah, well, it wasn’t like that really. She ah, she told me later that it was her idea. She thought I was _cute_.”

She chuckled. “You are cute darling.”

“Yah, well,” He pushed his glasses back up his nose. “Sha’re didn’t care that I was basically helpless. Everyone else kept bowing at me or kneeling when I walked by and she just treated me the same way she did her little brother Skaara. She teased me, laughed at me when I screwed up. She didn’t care that Jack and I saved everyone.” He swallowed a bit of his drink and thought for a moment. “She made me feel loved. Wanted. No one had ever made me feel that way before. Not in a long time. Even Jack only tolerated me at that point and he’d gone back to Earth.”

She smiled. “You seem to get on well now.”

“We do. Most of the time. We still disagree on a lot of things.”

“Darling I believe that would be the case with most anyone with you.” She grinned and punched his shoulder lightly.

“You aren’t exactly easy to get along with either.” He told her.

“Yes Darling but I know I’m difficult to get along with.” She admitted with unusual candor.

Daniel nodded. “Anyway, she made me feel loved, safe, wanted. Because she did love me. Even when Apophis had Amaunet take Shar’re as a host she still loved me. It’s my fault she died.”

“Darling, it’s far more likely she’d have been taken as a host in either case given the situation.”

“Yah.” He said sadly and downed his drink. She called the waiter over and got him another.

“How did you get past it?”

“Eventually… you just move on.” He said with a shrug.

She nodded and scooted his new drink to him. “I believe our contact arrived.”

“Let's do this then.”


	15. “How about a hug, hm?” – Episode 37

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Another mission, another mud fight

Sam tried. She really did. But the giggles just bubbled up in spite of her efforts otherwise. She couldn’t help it. All three of them had tumbled in before she could stop them and well…

“Carter. Stop giggling.”

“Sorry sir.” She snorted in mirth.

“Sam do you have a rope?” Daniel asked Sam plaintively.

“I might.” More giggling.

“Major Carter seems overcome with mirth.” Teal’c observed dryly. It was the only thing dry about him.

“Yah think?” Jack asked him.

“Sorry. Sorry. It’s just…” Sam bit her lip trying not to laugh harder.

They looked at each other. All three men were standing in a chest-deep sinkhole that had opened under them while they stood together slightly away from Sam when she was getting readings on some strangely glowing rocks. The sinkhole had rapidly filled with water and mud as they tried to get up so all three were plastered head down with light grey and slightly green goop.

Jack tried to keep a straight face. Daniel just looked confused. Teal’c looked like he wanted to sigh and roll his eyes but settled on raising an eyebrow at Sam expectantly.

Still biting her lip hard enough to draw blood and her shoulders shaking with suppressed laughter Sam dug around in her pack for the chute cord she usually kept on hand for emergencies. Jack kept one too but his wasn’t exactly helpful at the moment.

“Any minute now Carter.” Jack grumped.

“Yes sir.” Sam told him absently. He was lucky she wasn’t rolling on the ground holding her sides right now frankly.

Daniel grew bored and scooped a wad of mud up with his fingers. With an amused smirk he slow pitched it at Jack’s chest.

Jack glared balefully at him.

“Daniel Jackson, discontinue this behavior.” Teal’c told him then dumped a handful of mud down Daniel’s shirt.

“Kids.” Jack said with a sigh… then thwapped them both with a handful of mud.

Sam snorted with mirth again and tied the chute line to a nearby sturdy tree. She ran the line out to the mud puddle and reached as carefully as she could out to Teal’c who was ignoring Jack and Daniel having a mud fight.

After a few false starts and eventually Teal’c holding on to the line steady to make up for the unstable footing under them, All three men were out of the muddy sinkhole.

“Everyone all right?” Jack asked his team in concern.

“I am well O’Neill.”

“Nothing broken Jack.”

“You Carter?”

“I’m fine sir.” She told him, amusement twinkling in her eyes.

Yes you are he thought but reminded himself not to say out loud. But then it slipped out. “How about a hug hm?”

Sam sidestepped his outreached arms. “Not a chance sir.”

“Hey what was with those rocks? Anyway?” He asked as they reached the gate. His second having evaded his reach the entire way back.

“Phosphorous sir.”

“Rats.”


	16. Is this your first time? - Episode 43

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Newly minted SG-1 learns some fascinating things about Captain Carter. Lets watch, shall we?

It had all gone to crap. Of course. Because after all, why wouldn’t it have been otherwise.

Sam awoke with a groan. “Why do my arms hurt?” She complained.

Jack lolled his head over.

“Look up.” Daniel suggested.

Sam did.

Her arms hung above her head in shackles chained to the wall. They probably would have been in a comfortable position if she were standing but currently, she was sprawled on cold cobbled stone where their captors had dumped her and the others.

“Great.” She said philosophically.

“Is this your first time Carter?”

Sam snorted with suppressed laughter. “No.”

All three male teammates of SG-1 looked at her, even Teal’c. Daniel looked shocked. Teal’c raised an eyebrow in what Sam assumed was amusement and the Colonel… well… he looked… interested.

“I’m pretty adventurous.” She hedged. And bit her lip.

Her commanding officer smirked. Sam blushed from the roots of her hair to deep below her collar.

Colonel O’Neill… grinned.

“All right campers, lets get out of here so Captain Carter can regale us with her fascinating story of why she knows more about bondage than the rest of us.” Jack O’Neill told the rest of SG-1.

“Right.” Sam said under her breath, still blushing.


	17. “How about you make me?” – Episode 38

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sometimes happy trails are snail trails

They were still navigating this... thing. Everything had happened so fast after Jake’s death and Sam realizing Pete was never the right guy for her because she’d been doing what she always did for guys. Folding herself, again and again, to fit what he wanted. Jack knew the final straw wasn’t the house or the dog. Those were things he knew Sam actually wanted. It was the assumption that she wouldn’t want to participate in choosing either.

He’d been a little floored when he’d been reassigned to Washington and she’d asked if she could buy his house... and his truck… and his motorcycle. The bike had left him the most perplexed. He rarely rode the thing. He’d only bought it so he could ride with her as the Indian was a one-seater.

But then when things had gone sideways for a while because he was an idiot and he didn’t ride it at all because his feelings for that bike were woven so deeply into his feelings for her that it gave him no pleasure to even look at it for a year.

You know for a guy who told the woman he’d loved for eight years regardless of her engagement to another man not to dwell, he sure spent a lot of time dwelling. But could you blame a guy? It was one thing to carry a torch for your super cute, highly intelligent, incredibly fun, sexy second in command. It was another to toss aside guy after guy for a guy nearly old enough to be your dad. Not quite old enough mind you, but almost.

Enough to make him feel pretty old a lot of days.

And then things had gone from longing glances and unspoken words to rushed kisses and rushed plans and her reassignment to Groom Lake because… because… if she didn’t get out of his chain of command for five minutes he was going to go insane.

The object of his musings just walked past him through the living area of his DC apartment. There was nothing unusual in her actions necessarily. She visited when she could. No. The real issue was that she walked past him wearing her wedding ring. Just her wedding ring.

Jack gulped. “Carter.” He said in a strangled voice. “It’s the middle of the day. Could you put some cloths on?” if nothing else in deference to his sweet elderly neighbor across the street who likely was getting quite an eyeful of every delectable inch of Lt. Colonel. Dr. Samantha Carter O’Neill.

She gave him a slow, languid look as she turned and trailed her fingers down his dress shirt covered chest. “How about you make me… General.” She said with a slow knowing smirk as her eyes drifted to his hips and back up again to his eyes, not that she needed to look to know the effect she was having on him.

“Not like they can fire me for being late.” Jack reasoned out loud to himself and accepted what his wife was offering him.


	18. “Please don’t leave me alone.” – Episode 62

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This short brought to you by the casual observation in my writing group... do you suppose George ever made Jack pay for the car window he busted with a hockey stick.

“Well Jack, the truth is I don’t want your money.” Hammond told O’Neill. The door of his office was closed.

“I see sir.” Jack said dejectedly. He’d finally found some sense of purpose and it looked like it was going to be yanked away because of his own stupidity. That just figured.

“The fact of the matter is I need a favor from you instead.”

“Uh, what sir?”

“Be at my house at oh seven hundred tomorrow son. Dress comfortably.” Hammond gave Jack a smug look. “Dismissed.”

Figuring the general intended to take advantage of Jack’s carpentry skill, he’d dressed for a day of repairs. Jeans, an aging t-shirt, and his less then combat ready swamp boots from a few years ago that looked pretty bad and honestly smelt even worse. “Sir.” He said to the older bald man who opened the door.

“Come on in Jack.” George said effusively. “They will be here any minute.”

“Ah… they? Sir?”

“Yes Jack. They.” And George refused to further elaborate.

A few moments later George’s daughter rushes in. “ I am _SO_ sorry I’m late dad. Traffic was terrible and the kids wouldn’t get ready.” She told him as she brushed her lips on his cheek. Continuing in a rush of words she turns and puts her hand out for Jack to shake. “Hi, I’m Natalie, I’m so glad you offered to give dad a hand today.”

Jack shakes it still confused. “Sure, anything for your dad.” His voice trails off as two little girls come into the room bickering over the plot of a cartoon.

“Sir?” Jack said, clearly confused.

“I have a trip to Washington I cannot put off son. Thank you for generously offering to watch my granddaughters for the week while their mother is at work.”

“Ah.” Was all Jack said and scratched his neck absently.

Three hours later a very put upon Jack O’Neill concluded he needed reinforcements. “Carter.” He barked into his cell phone. The girls were outside playing in the snow. Thankfully.

“Sir?” Sam asked him confused. Walter had told her earlier that SG-1 was on stand down for the week per the General’s orders while he was in DC.

“Carter, I’m going to give you an address and I need you to meet me there.”

“Sir? What’s going on?”

“I can’t tell you that.”

Sir I really don’t think…”

“Carter, I am outnumbered. I need reinforcements.” He knew he needed to sweeten this pot. “I’ll buy you dinner.” He offered.

Sam mulled his offer over silently for some time.

“Carter?” he asked cautiously. Had he gone too far? He’d held her when she sobbed over the idea of leaving Daniel behind. It made him realize he cared about her a tad more than was appropriate really but she was sweet and funny and smart as hell and could kick his ass if she really wanted to… and lets face it… he had a type and he knew it.

“Fine but it better be Chinese and not that cheap gas station stuff you buy off the highway.” She demanded.

“Sold.” Jack told her.

“So what’s the address?”

Jack rattled it off.

“Sir… That’s General Hammond’s address.” She told him.

“I know that.” Jack huffed.

“Sir?”

“I’m babysitting his grandkids to pay off what I owe him for the broken car window.”

“Broken…?”

“I’ll tell yah about it when you get here Carter, just hurry.”

An hour later Sam showed up at her godfather’s house. She heard giggling out back so she went around the side.

“Oh hey Auntie Sam!” Kayla said and threw a snowball at her sister.

“Where’s Colonel O’Neill?”

“In the house.” Tessa told her.

“Okay then.” Sam said, mystified and went to the back door. “Sir?”

“In here.” Came a muffled reply from the general direction of the kitchen.

Sam followed his voice and the sound of chopping. “Sir?”

“Oh hey Carter. Grab a carrot and start peeling.”

“I’m on KP duty sir?”

“No the kids need lunch and the general doesn’t keep any junk food in the house. He must be on a diet again.”

“Why didn’t you just order them a pizza?” She asked him as she went to the correct drawer and got out the peeler.

Jack looked at her suspiciously but didn’t mention that Sam knew her way around their CO’s kitchen. “I tried to. Their oven won’t be hot for another hour. I can make lunch in that time.” He grumbled.

“Ah. So what are we making then?” She asked in curiosity.

“Paprika chicken and steamed carrots over yellow rice.” He tilted his head at the rice cooker that was steaming away.

She smiled a little at him. “All right. I’ll get these peeled.”

After lunch the girls ran around the house yelling at each other from room to room no matter how many times Jack asked them to stop. Normally Sam would have questioned why he wasn’t just playing with them until she saw the stack of paperwork Uncle George had left for him to complete daily while he was in DC.

“Would you like me to help you with any of that sir?” Sam asked Colonel O’Neill, wincing at the octave her godfather’s grandchild was capable of reaching.

“Sorry Captain, this stuff is above your pay grade.”

“Right.” Sam sighed and looked around. She really should have brought some of her own paperwork but she’d had no idea what it was she was getting herself into at the time. Her eyes lit on the shelves under the stairs. Ah ha. “Girls!” She yelled to be heard above their current squabble. “Girls!” She yelled again only with a sharper edge to her voice.

Both girls came tumbling in and skidded to a stop. They looked up at Sam expectantly. Sam shook a puzzle box.

“One thousand pieces. Lets see who can get it together the fastest.”

“Together?”

“Yup.”

The girls grinned and pulled over the coffee table they used for puzzles on rainy days.

An hour later the room was all but silent. Sam finally got up to use the bathroom. When she came out Her CO was propped against the wall waiting. “Sir there’s another bathroom down the hall, you didn’t need to wait.”

Jack grinned sheepishly but then gave her a pleading look. “Sam, I don’t care if I have to eat your hours on base, whatever you do, please don’t leave me alone with them.”

Sam gave him a gentle smile. But Jack shook his head. “I love kids Sam. I really do but my head is killing me. They haven’t stopped fighting all day until you got that puzzle out.”

Sam shrugged with a soft smile. “It’s different when you have two of them to deal with. My niece and nephew fight like that sometimes and I found giving them things that kept their fingers busy tended to make things quieter also.”

“Thanks for the tip.”

“Well, you know, any time sir.” Sam said and blushed a little under his intense gaze. There was something in the way he looked at her sometimes that made her feel like he could see right through why she’d come on to him specifically when she’d been under the influence of that virus thing.

“So what else do they like to do?”

“Huh?” Sam asked him, having lost track of the conversation.

“What works besides puzzles?”

“Oh… oh right, yah. Well, Tessa likes making friendship bracelets and Kayla likes to draw.”

Jack grinned.

“What?”

“Want to take a trip to the craft supply store with me after we leave?”

“Well—“

“I owe you dinner anyway.”

“Well yes bu—“

“Great. It’s a date.” He said with a grin then realized how that came out. “Not like, a date date just two friends hanging out shopping and having dinner together… wait, I mean… dammit you know what I mean.”

Sam grinned. “Yes sir, I do.”

“Great.” He said again. Grinning. “And don’t call me sir while we’re out either. It’s going to look like some sort of weird kink.”

Sam’s eyes went wide and her mouth fell open.

“Ok if you want to write me up for shoving my foot that far in my mouth you’re more than welcome to.” Jack said, putting his hand to his forehead in embarrassment.

Sam just giggled though. “It’s fine sir.”

“Good… good.” Jack’s head bobbed. “So which craft store is closest?”


	19. “Quiet. They can hear us.” – Episode 63

“Is this really the best idea?”

“Have you got a better one?”

“Your quarters come to mind sir.”

“If I was looking for us that’s the _first_ place I’d look Carter.”

“Only if they expected us to be...well…”

“Well what Major?” He asked her sardonically and leaned closer to her in the confined space as he shifted his arm up next to her head.

“Sir.” He voice was an uncomfortable sigh but her body ignored her brain and her eyelids dropped as she found herself looking at his lips.

“Carter.” His voice a rumbling purr.

She laid one hand flat on the middle of his chest, to steady herself or keep him at bay he wasn’t sure but it wasn’t disinterest. He watched her eyes dilate and her breath catch “Sir.” She bit her lip.

He threaded his fingers into her hair, cupping her cheek as he watched her and smiled when she turned into his hand slightly. “This is a really good hiding place you found Carter.” His fingers stroking her hair affectionately. “We should keep it in mind for later.”

“Ah, later what sir?” He voice had gone breathy and she mentally kicked herself. They had a foothold situation and here she was getting ready to play tonsil hockey with her admittedly very sexy CO.

“Oh, I was thinking later…” he leaned in and brushed her lips gently. “when we have some down time.”

The hiding place she’d found for them was literally under the base that was standing on, of all things, giant springs to compensate for tremors in the mountain though additional dampeners had been placed under the Gate as well. They were wedged between a set of the dampeners where it was dark and the aliens sweeping the base were highly unlikely to look. The aliens didn’t seem to be killing anyone but everyone they caught they put in some kind of stasis field. Hammond had locked the base down before things progressed but he was incapacitated and Jack and Sam had worked their way out an emergency exit until they could formulate a plan.

So far the only plan they had managed was evade capture and possibly Jack’s plan to get lucky at some point.

Jack was still fairly intent on getting her hot and bothered. He’d started trailing feather light kisses along her neck. Sam let out a soft hum of pleasure.

She heard a growl low in his throat the same moment the soft slither of very alien feet approaching. She quickly pressed her hand over his mouth and put her lips next to his ear. “Sir, quiet. They can hear us.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It really does. I saw a documentary. The whole thing is on springs and has it’s own power plant and enough food to last a decade for everyone in the mountain.


	20. Real smooth, tripping over air. – Episode 69

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Getting married is just all in a day's work for SG-1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Needed a break from Angst

“Well this is cliché.”

“Yah think” Sam huffed at him from across the room.

“At least the wedding wasn’t so bad this time.” That was putting it mildly. The ceremony had been short but local tradition called for anything less than a lust fueled make out session of a kiss to be booed.

They had not been booed. There had in fact been some cheering. Some of which might have been a very drunk Daniel because the reception in this society was apparently prior to the ceremony.

Now however they stood on opposite sides of the marital chamber they had been generously given to consummate their regard for each other… and they were both really drunk.

Jack solved the problem by yanking off his shirt and flopping face down on the large bed to promptly begin snoring.

Sam sighed. It was just as well. This was about the tenth wedding they had been made to participate in together. They had tried Daniel the first few times but he’d kissed her like he was kissing his grandma. After the third time and Daniel finally admitting it was like trying to make out with his sister Jack had taken over the job of getting hitched to Sam. He seemed to especially like it when they let him write his own vows so he could rhapsodize on her various scientific and military badass accomplishments. Frequently he slipped in inside jokes even Daniel didn’t get but had her desperately holding back a snort of laughter.

Consistently such nights ended with them laughing in each other’s arms, him kissing her neck until she got shivers down her legs and thanking her for once again taking one for the team by marrying an old fart.

An old fart that could make her get tingles of need all the way in her toes by kissing her neck as a thank you.

Tonight however he lay sprawled face down on the bed passed out. The officiate had given Jack a copy of the sermon prior to the reception and he’d shoved it in his pocket then gotten very inebriated which was not like him.

Sam had understood of course when the officiate had spoken of eternal unbreaking love and Jack had stared at her with his heart in his eyes. Unlike many of the fruitful harvest type ones or his silly love of her talking to her plants this one had been a real wedding ceremony that had, apparently, expressed his genuine regard for her.

It had been a little more than he could genuinely handle without throwing himself at her. She understood. Her heart had been in her eyes as well after all and that kiss… Holly Hannah that kiss. She was still aroused half an hour later… and he was passed out.

Sam sighed. It figured.

She got undressed and climbed onto the bed next to him, made sure he was all right and closed her eyes.

The next morning she blushed at the dream she’d had of him waking her up in the middle of the night to make slow sensuous love to her. Mostly because his face was buried in her bare chest. When she tried to scoot away his face turned and he sleepily captured a nipple with his mouth and stroked her with his tongue until she moaned in surrender.

His face lifted and he gave her a conspiratorial smile before claiming her mouth. Sam realized last night hadn’t been a dream as he slowly entered her, his hands stroking her body, neither of them saying a word as he took his time drawing her to the edge and over, capturing her mouth as she moaned his name while she shook and strained under him.

Sam blinked at him in bemusement a few moments later. “Jack?”

He shook his head and smiled though as one of his long fingers brushed her lips. “No one needs to know but us Sam.” He told her softly before claiming her mouth.

When they left the room finally they were dressed in their field uniforms looking tired and fairly amused.

“So did you guys have fun last night?” Daniel finally asked them on the walk back to the Gate.

“This one passed out the minute we hit the room.” Sam said laughing.

“It’s not my fault. I’m old.” Jack whined.

Daniel watched them. They acted like they always had during these things. Making jokes and picking on each other about it like it was hilarious… except for one thing. Jack had a hickey just below his left ear… And he’d been woken up in the middle of the night by Sam first moaning then sharply saying Jack before cussing like a woman in the throes of an orgasm.

And yet… They didn’t act like he expected either of them to act once they finally consummated their feelings for each other.

Jack had tugged up a frond of something that looked like caterpillar grass and was tickling Sam with it from a couple feet away.

Sam was laughing telling him to stop and threw a handful of bright yellow flowers at Jack.

They were acting like their usual selves which was to say like a couple of adolescents who had consumed too much sugar at breakfast.

Daniel shook his head. “Teal’c?” He asked the large Jaffa quietly from well behind the newlyweds.

Teal’c just smirked. “All is as it should be Daniel Jackson.”

Ahead of them Sam had tackled Jack and was shoving flowers in his face for swatting her on the rear for slowing down. He’d stumbled and she was mocking him for it.

“Real smooth. Tripping over air sir.”

“Carter! You TACKLED me!” He yelped at her.

Daniel narrowed his eyes. They were so… giddy…


	21. “So… what are we now?” – Episode 73

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Walking the razor edge of smut and humor

Danny had told him it was just a formality for negotiations. Carter wanted the naquadah so bad her mouth was all but watering and the locals didn’t allow anyone to stand in a leadership position and not be married off. This went for any allies they dealt with as well. All negotiators must be espoused. Danny was off the hook as was Teal’c, both of which had proof of their vows. Only Jack and Sam had been unable to produce proof. Now in later times, they would have the good sense to claim their dog tags were proof and had been known to discreetly switch out one each while Daniel informed them of the local customs and both carried a plain gold band in their pockets as well in case that didn’t work either. But this was their first encounter with a society that steadfastly insisted everyone be blissfully wed and they had been at a loss as to how to handle such a situation without things getting awkward.

Daniel had assured them that the ceremony was brief and they wouldn’t be required to submit to other local marriage customs which had included several creative ways to ensure their romantic and sexual compatibility. Under normal circumstances, Jack would have very much enjoyed discovering what made his very tense Captain shatter that paper-thin veneer of control she maintained around herself after that little incident in the locker room.

He really had been mystified why she would choose him over younger more attractive men on the base but Jack was never one to look a gift horse in the mouth unless such a gift horse seemed more Trojan in type. He really shouldn’t be thinking about Trojan anything at a time like this. Not with her dressed that way. They had put her in some kind of diaphanous nearly see-through dress type get up and it was chilly so Jack knew she wasn’t wearing a bra or on discreet inspection, panties. Not that his clothing was honestly any better. The shirt he was wearing looked like someone who wrote porn about pirates would think up. It was white and gauzy with billowing sleeves and open almost all the way to his navel. The pants were a fine leather better suited to gloves and so fitted they left him repeating ‘Margret Thatcher in a thong’ over and over in his head to stop his junk from doing his thinking for him.

He also pointedly looked every single place but at the beautiful woman next to him carefully repeating her vows back to the village elder. When it was his turn he studiously repeated back everything the elder told him to say, not putting much thought into the choice of words which was probably a good thing because had either of them paid specific attention to each other’s lines they would have been equal parts mortified and stoked by the contents which included such promises as bringing each other to completion each time they lay together and accepting any kink the other wanted to give a shot.

Eventually the elder instructed them to show a sign of affection. In this particular society, it was not uncommon for the bride and groom to publically bring each other to orgasm right there in front of the elder but fortunately most everyone knew the situation was a formality and there would be no free show even if the tall strangers were unaccountably attractive and the villagers were almost hoping to see if these strangers had something new and inventive to teach them about the subject.

They were, sadly for all of us really, doomed to disappointment as Jack leaned in and, cupping her jaw, brushed Sam’s lips gently, almost reverently. Had the villagers been less polite they might have booed. As it was, instead they were lead back to a reception hall with smiles and plied with liquor until they both had silly grins on their faces and eyeing each other suggestively.

Teal’c had grabbed Sam and Daniel had grabbed Jack before things could get any more out of hand, they had thanked their hosts and dragged their inebriated commander and his equally inebriated captain through the gate to sleep it off in the infirmary.

Janet asked SG-1’s remaining sober team mates if they had been kidnapped and forced into a bodice ripper plot when she’d seen Jack and Sam’s state of dress then put them in the back of the infirmary where it was relatively quiet for them to sleep it off.

Sometime around fourteen hundred hours the next day, both of them groggily returned to the land of the living.

“Nice shirt Sir.” She told him, amusement filling the corners of her voice.

“I like the dress.” He admitted.

Sam looked down, remembering how thin it was and that she had no undergarments on and crossed her arms tightly over her chest which only served to push her breasts up and together, not really ruining the look as far as Jack was concerned. “Did we?”

He shook his head, partially to clear it, partially in denial. “I think I’d remember that. At least with you anyway.”

Sam blushed brightly from the edge of her hair all the way down her chest.

Jack ran his teeth over his bottom lip and looked at the ceiling for a long moment. “Sorry Captain. I was out of line.”

“No.” She said quickly. “It’s all right. I asked after all.” Sam hated that she blushed so easily and so… thoroughly.

“So… what are we now?”


	22. “Why do I even bother?” Episode 89

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Because in the end, it's all worth it for this.

Sam walked out of the meeting with the Joint Chiefs, her facial expression… mutinous.

She was so furious with their post-mission evaluation of her that she stalked right past the tall graying general leaning casually against a nearby wall, not even noticing him which was unusual for her regarding this specific general as he’d been her commanding officer for the better part of a decade.

“Bad?” He said simply as he easily fell in line with her long stride.

Her sensible low heeled dress shoes clicked on the tile of the hallway. “What happened to your meeting?” she asked in a clipped tone. “Sir.” She added almost as an afterthought. He’d begged off joining her for work-related nonsense he hated anyway.

“Canceled. Last-minute of course. Almost like the entire plan was to keep me spinning my wheels in my office instead of making those shol’va idiots shiver in their shiny little dress shoes while they grilled you.” He shrugged philosophically. “Sorry Carter. I should have been there.”

“Not your fault sir.” She said with a tired sigh.

“Want some ice cream?” He asked her with a hopeful quirk of his mouth.

She stopped and looked at him as though he’d lost his mind.

“So that’s a yes Colonel?” His smile reached his eyes.

“I could use a drink more.” She admitted.

“We both know what happens when I let you day drink Carter.” He admonished her.

“It was tea.” She reminded him with a quirk to her lips.

He nodded. That was better he thought as they left the building and headed to a familiar shop around the corner they were both fond of.

Sam hunched her shoulders in irritation “They don’t care about those people or the program or the potential dangers.” She rounded on him as they reached the door of the ice cream shop. “Why do I even bother?” She demanded.

Jack opened the door for her. A three-year-old with burnished curls bounced in her chair, her hair bouncing with her, and waved at them, her companion a large black man in a blue ball cap with an old English D on it, who had kept them all alive more times than not. “That’s why.” He said with a grin for the little girl who launched herself into his arms sticky fingers and all.

Sam smiled softly. “Yah.” She said leaning against the door frame for a moment. Good reason she decided.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This might reappear in Fate as it's... well... obviously an outtake from that series


	23. “Why didn’t you tell me?” – Episode 91

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yah yah... I know... angst with a happy ending...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger warning as the topic is Jacob's funeral. There have been times I was in a bad place and reading about funerals wasn't a good idea at all.

He absently stroked the bare finger on her left hand.

She didn’t say anything to him about it. She’d lost count of how many times he’d done so today. As if reassuring himself she no longer belonged to another man. A man she’d felt great affection for but whom she’d never genuinely loved. Not the way she did this man who absently stroked her finger each time he drew near her at her father’s wake.

Mark had taken her aside before the funeral and asked where Pete was, expecting to see his friend front and center. When she showed up with her CO and Pete was a no show for the final private family prayer with the priest, it had come up.

He’d surprisingly accepted her reasons with understanding. Sam wasn’t sure what his reaction would be but she’d been surprised that Mark had agreed that if Pete were looking for very different things in life and that he’d expected her to let go of who she was to become whatever his ideal was that they weren’t going to be a good fit.

Unknown to Sam, Mark had made time to talk to Jack who had been hanging back in the hallway after the family prayer; privately before the service while she spoke to old military friends of their father’s.

He’d told Jack that his dad had talked to him about Sam’s feelings for him and that he sincerely hoped he’d take this opportunity to gently assume the position of her support through this, which Jack had quickly agreed to having already come to that conclusion himself. Mark had also none too gently told Jack that if he loved his sister back, that dad had complained repeatedly that the regulations about relationships were only enforced if you were doing something else you shouldn’t be doing and that their only likely outcome was being forced to get married and was that really so bad?

Jack had agreed with him that due to their changes in positions perhaps they could avoid that whole dishonorably discharged thing they would have danced around in the past. Mark had laughed. He knew about the president’s odd affection for the tall now fully grey man standing beside him trying to pretend he wasn’t watching his sister out of the corner of his eye. Then he’d given Jack the sort of amused look Jack had gotten from Jacob many times in the past and welcomed him to the family.

Now they stood in loose random groups in George’s home that he’d chosen to hold on to for a planned retirement as of a few days from now after Jack had a chance to tell Sam about his new assignment that might make things difficult but not impossible if they got off their asses quickly enough.

They still had the formal shindig at Arlington to deal with yet though. Mark wouldn’t be at the formal military service. He was pushing it being in Colorado at this time of year.

The guys had taken leave to help Sam pack up her house and get her moved to Nevada for her research project and head up to the cabin together finally. One last team weekend to spend together before their lives moved on for the time being. Jack’s permanently in its way though he hoped, once they had time to talk, not in the way everyone was expecting.

For now though he stood on her left and absently stroked her fingers to reassure himself. The wake was dying down and the efficient and soon departing staff George had hired so no one on SG-1 would think it their responsibility to clean up any of the mess but most especially Jack and Sam who had enough on their plates having lost a close friend and a father.

As the room emptied, old friends left, family, what was left of it, were headed back to Sam’s house for the night to save on a hotel. Sam’s bag was in Hammond’s guest room, if for no other reason, to avoid fielding questions on why she went back to Jack’s instead of her own home that was currently full and out of bed space. Even the couch.

“I’ll stay as long as you need me to tonight Sam.” Jack told her softly as they stood with Daniel and Teal’c saying goodbye to people.

She nodded. She could have told him he didn’t have to or thanked him for the offer and turned him down but she understood what he was asking. Here they could just talk without there being any hint of impropriate. George’s daughter had taken the kids to bed and George had retired to his office to relax and watch football. Daniel and Teal’c had left moments ago.

They moved to the living room and sank together onto one of George’s comfortable and comforting couches, her head on his shoulder. Jack dragged the afghan off the back of the couch and draped it over her after she tucked her now bare feet up against the back of the sofa.

He sat and held her for a long while, occasionally gently stroking her hair or her arm, her arm wrapped around his waist and her eyes closed.

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Tell you what?” Jack asked, unsure what she meant by that.

She turned and scooted until instead of leaning on his shoulder, she was in his lap and her eye level but slightly above his. She put a hand on his cheek and held him so he had to look at her or actively be rude. “Jack, why didn’t you tell me not to marry Pete? I asked you directly.”

“You did.” He agreed but struggled to elaborate on why he’d chosen to act as he had.

“I made it really clear that all you had to do was ask me not to.”

He sighed. “Yah. You did.”

“That’s all you have to say for yourself Jack?”

“Yes. No! Sam, it wasn’t fair to beg you to wait for me. We’d already waited so long. Long enough that you decided to stop waiting.”

“I didn’t decide to stop waiting. You told me to, or, well, sort of you, it’s hard to explain.”

“Why don’t you try?”

Sam sighed a little dramatically. “I ah, hallucinated on the Prometheus. We talked about where things stood between us and you told me you are a simple man and that I’m the one complicating things.”

“And you took that as I didn’t want to be with you anymore?”

“I took it as if I wanted anything resembling a normal life I had to let go of my feelings for you because you were never going to do anything about it.”

“Sam you live one of the most extraordinary lives possible. If you want normal we’ll get married and I’ll retire.”

She looked at him, her eyebrows drawn together. “What?”

He raked his hand into his hair that was already mused. “Ok I can’t _quite_ retire yet because George is retiring and I’m taking his job for at least two years but as of Monday I am no longer your commanding officer, in fact, I’m no longer in your chain of command at all for exactly three weeks. They can’t do anything to us if we get married at some point in those three weeks Sam. Not a single damned thing. George and I checked."

Sam blinked. “What?”

“Marry me Sam. Please.” His eyes held hers, wiling her to say yes.

“Can I think about it a little?”

Jack looked a little stricken. “Ok. Not the answer I was expe-“ But he never finished as Sam’s mouth covered his and kissed him deeply.

“That’s a yes right?”

She chuckled. “Can I help pick my ring?”

“Absolutely.”

**Author's Note:**

> As these are quickies they are unlikely to be BETA'ed so if you see an error just point it out.


End file.
